The uniqueness of the wildlife and the luxurious nature of South African private game reserves could be seen as a valuable niche in the South African tourism market and for this reason make South Africa a desired destination. Due to complex visitor needs and demands regarding price, service, social connection, authenticity, quality or image, value perceptions will differ in terms of visitors’ experiences. If managers do not understand these value requirements, differences might exist between consumers’ and service providers’ perceptions of value. To maintain visitor satisfaction, loyalty and intention for return to the reserves, managers should continue to provide valued offerings and improve their visitors’ wildlife experience. This research investigated visitors’ perceptions of the value delivered by private game reserves in South Africa and compared these with reserve managers’ perceptions of the value delivered. The results of this research study could contribute to a better understanding of perceived value, which in turn could enhance the success of the private game reserves. The literature contextualised the South African private game reserve as part of wildlife tourism, the wildlife tourism offering and the characteristics of wildlife visitors. An overview of customer value, customer value models showing their development over time, and the conceptual framework of the current study was provided. The resulting conceptual model was used to evaluate managers’ and visitors’ perceptions of Quality, Monetary price, Behavioural price, Reputation, Emotional response, Social value and Novelty value delivered by South African private game reserves. The empirical data was collected by means of a survey, using two structured self-administered electronic questionnaires administered to the managers of, and the visitors to, private game reserves. One hundred and sixty two visitors and 30 managers participated in the survey. By performing exploratory factor analysis it was found that the seven value factors were consistent with the value dimensions reported in the literature. These were labelled as Quality, Emotional response, Monetary price, Reputation, Novelty value, Social value and Behavioural price. Most of managers’ perceptions of value provided exceeded visitors’ perceptions of value received. Both managers and visitors rated value items related to Emotional response highly. Considerably more managers (17 percent) thought that the reserve experience can be associated with good service, opposed to only 4 percent of visitors who perceived the service to be good. On the other hand, a larger proportion of visitors (29%) than the managers (20 percent) perceived the reserve experience as relaxing. Managers rated eleven of the thirteen game reserve attributes more positively than what the visitors did. Of these attributes, accommodation services, protection of the natural environment, game drives and service delivery, showed significant differences. It is recommended that South African private game reserve managers: • conduct market research to get a better understanding of what delights visitors. Research should be conducted on a regular basis to ensure management stays current with visitors’ changing needs; • determine whether the prices charged reflect the quality of the physical offerings, service delivery and the time and effort visitors spent to obtain the offering; • use the adventurous activities offered at the reserves as part of their promotional campaigns to attract adventure tourists; • train service delivery staff and game drive guides to educate visitors on the history, culture and eco-friendly practices related to their reserve; • always deliver superior service to ensure memorable wildlife experiences, value for money and exceed visitors’ expectations; • continue using websites, social media and magazines to inform the target market about the reserve offerings; and • stay in regular contact with visitors through social media, newsletters, blogs, follow up emails/calls or face to face discussions at the reserve.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:9374 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Theron, Elizna |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MTech |
| Format | xiii, 157 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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